Cyclic projectors and separation theorems in idempotent convex geometry (Q2519211)

Semimodules over idempotent semirings like the max-plus or tropical semirings have much in common with convex cones. This analogy appears particularly in the case of subsemimodules of the \(n\)-fold Cartesian product of a max-plus semiring. It is known that it is possible to separate a vector from a closed subsemimodule which does not contain it. In the paper, the authors establish a separation theorem applying to any finite collection of closed subsemimodules with a trivial intersection. The proof of this theorem involves some nonlinear operators called cyclic projectors on idempotent semimodules. They also characterize the spectrum of such projectors and give an analogue of the Helly's theorem for a collection of semimodules. Graphical illustrations of some theorems are given in the end of the paper.